Forward vs. Introducation

[Askia]

I have a book. It has both a forward and an introduction, written by two people other than the author of the book. What exactly is meant to be the difference between the two?

[mazzer]

Well, a foreword is generally removed from the subject matter a bit, perhaps discussing the author or the way in which the book was written. An introduction will often engage in a preliminary discussion of the subject matter; it will prepare the reader for the book.

Think of the foreword as a word before the book, while the introduction introduces the book.

[belladonna]

IME, an introduction is usually not included unless the author has died. That being the case, they are almost exclusively penned by someone other than the author and they tend to provide a brief overview of the work and it’s overall context. “This work was Author’s most ambitious and highlighted the undercurrent of the sexual revolution which was influencing the country at the time it was published, blah blah blah…” Introductions can sometimes be mini-biographies of the author too, depending on how famous they are.

Forewords, on the other hand, can be written by the author or a second party. They are much more informal than forewords and focus on the specific story or the story’s birth rather than the “big picture”. I’ve seen a couple forewords that were written by a friend of the author and touched on the personality behind the story, small anectdotes about the writing process, etc. They’re generally conversational, unlike the “educational” introduction.

Hope this is at least mildly helpful.

bella

[Askia]

chriszarate and belladonna: thank you. Foreword! AHA. That’s why my dictionary didn’t clear that up. Okay.

Hmf. Managed to misspell TWO words in the OP Topic that time…

[lissener]

Belladonna, do you have a cite for your definitions? I feel fairly certain that the one you give for “Introduction” is wrong: it’s not uncommon, it seems to me, for an introduction to be written by the author of the book.

[Walloon]

From The Chicago Manual of Style, 13th edition:

A foreword is usually a statement by someone other than the author, sometimes an eminent person whose name may be carried on the title page. . . The author’s own statement about the work is called a preface. . . A foreword normally runs only two to four pages, and its author’s name appears at the end.

Material normally included in an author’s preface consists of reasons for undertaking the work, method of research (only if this has some bearing on the reader’s understanding of the text), acknowledgments, and, sometimes, permissions granted for the use of previously published material.

Material essential to the text, material that should be read before the rest of the book – an account of the historical background of the subject of the book, for example – should not be relegated to a preface but should be printed as an introduction at the beginning of the text proper.

[Colibri]

In technical/scientific books, at least, the “Introduction” normally is written by the author(s) of the work itself. The main exception would be in the case of a re-issue of an older work, in which a new introduction might be included in order to give historiacal pespective.

[ftg]

In the textbooks and technical books I have used, generally the forward is where the author writes about the process of creating the book, including acknowledgements. The introduction summarizes the book, explaining the necessary background needed to use the book, which chapters go together, which can be skipped, etc., issues about excercises and several other matters.

I rarely see anything written by anyone other than the author (or an editor if the author has died). “Preface” is rare.